Do you remember when you first realized your sexual orientation? For a young man on Reddit, his eyes were opened after watching gay porn. After his porn-y sexual awakening, he expressed his experience and concerns in a lengthy post to a Reddit LGBT group.

In the post titled “So I’m a “straight” guy and I just watched gay porn for the first time…”, the man admits that after he watched, he was aroused in a way like never before. He always believed he was bi or gay, but he never was never quite sure — especially because his father “is a huge homophobe” — so he exclusively identified as straight. Because of his father’s homophobia, he felt he had no one else to express these concerns and feelings to, so he took to Reddit:

I’ve been subbed here for a while, I guess it was a way for my brain to try and tell me that I might be something else than just “straight” but I guess it’s taken me a while to admit.

I came across one of the porn threads a couple days ago and decided “Eh, what the fuck, I’ll give it a go…” and watched some of it.

Well anyways let’s just say I didn’t expect to feel the way I did afterwards. I’ve always sort of thought I might be bi or gay but I’ve never acted out on it, primarily because my father is a huge homophobe.

I’ve been figuring out my emotions for the past few days and it’s been pretty weird. I think I’m probably bi, but then again who knows.

I’m a little anxious about me actually figuring out what the hell I am because of how homophobic my dad is.

Anyways, sorry for the wall of text, I just needed somewhere to vent and I haven’t got anywhere else to go…

He created a “throwaway” account for the original post because his friends knew his main Reddit account. When he finally checked it, he found over 70 comments filled with support, encouragement and advice. He gave a few updates after his original post:

EDIT: Wow so I used a throwaway for this since my friends know my main account, logged back into this one to find amazing answers. I love you guys <3.

EDIT 2: I knew this community was supportive, but I never realised how good it would make me feel to post this and have people emphasize with me. Putting how I feel down has been like lifting a huge weight off my shoulders.

For those of you wondering what the porn was. Despite searching through 7 pages on this sub I couldn’t locate the thread, I’ll keep searching. The video was of the two college dudes (the title say something along the lines of “Two bi college dudes suck and fuck”).

No word on what sexual orientation the young man identifies as but it’s safe to say the support he received was overwhelming and he seemed to appreciate it. This also isn’t the first time we’ve seen Reddit users rally together in support of a man struggling with his sexuality — just proof of how important the internet can be in providing life-saving support and affirmation to those who feel isolated and alone.